drig

I've used Handy with very varying results. I ended up ditching them because I couldn't get the same cleaner regularly. To use Handy, I would have to take the day off every time I wanted a cleaning, so that I could meet and vet the new cleaner.

One time, a new cleaner showed up, but I wasn't home. She didn't have the key, and so she couldn't clean. I asked for a refund and never got it.

Why do they keep referring to this guy as a "stoner"? What he smokes doesn't seem to be at all related to what he's done.

I always use an in-between system. My configuration library allows me to set a default, if the parameter is not found in the config file. I always set a reasonable default, and then only override if necessary. This keeps the configuration files small, keeps the default value with the code, but allows you maximum flexibility, just in case.

Huh. I read your comment more as "you can be perceived as an expert in your trade and still suck at it." Groping a potential client's boobs is a clear sign of sucking at being a VC.

Let me turn this question around a little. I'm a manager of a software development department. I have a coder who works best at night. I got upset with him for falling asleep at his desk. Not once, but many times. He tells me "I'm up all night working".

To make this situation worse, our office is very over-crowded. It's hard for me to see how anyone gets anything done.

But, we have meetings the devs need to be at. Project scoping, standups with the stakeholders, etc. Plus, major architecture decisions are made in person. So, we have a pretty strict "work from home only twice per week" rule.

How do I let this developer work when he is at his best, without excluding him from critical decisions? And, how do I encourage him to work at his best, without encouraging the lower-performing members to see it as an opportunity to slack off?

You really think that your productivity has risen more than 10% every year? Do you have any numbers to back that up? I know you use a ticket tracking system. You can add up all your completed story points, by year, pretty easily. If you're really getting 10% better every year, consistently, it should be easy to ask for a bigger raise.

My experience is that developers don't increase their value as fast as they increase their pay.

Not a question, just saying thanks. Your articles in the 1990s on VGA's modeX were the basis for a long-time obsession of mine: writing VGA graphic drivers to support better ways to display fractals. My college senior thesis was based on it.

Since then, Dr. Dobbs has been the shining example of highly technical material.

Thank you for everything your magazine meant.

Huh. I started off laughing at this comment. But, I work for an organic grocery company. Kitchen stocked with fruit, salad, healthy nut butters, etc. We ship frequently. I wonder if there is something to this.

Boulder tends to have more startups. TechStars is there, and so a lot of small companies are spawned from there. Denver has more established companies, including a lot in healthcare. Fort Collins is a smaller city, and I'm not as familiar with the job situation there. But, it seems to me to be kind of in-between. Smaller companies, but not so many new startups.

I interviewed Dan a few years back, and I've regretted not being able to hire him. If you're hiring, you should really consider bringing Dan in for an interview.

I came here to say the same thing. NewRelic is actually pretty bad at saying "your server is down". But, it's incredible at saying "Your landing page is loading slowly because the time it takes to load your data from MySQL is slow. Oh, and here's the offending query." Different things.

My feeling is that Google is acting like a monopoly. It's wrong that a private company is able to exert this much power over others, even if the others are being shady.

I worked for RSA back in the 1990s. Back then at least, the sales staff's pay was based heavily on commission. It has a sliding structure that meant that people who sold more got a higher percentage. $10m might not have been a lot to EMC, but to the sales guy it probably meant over $50k, maybe over $100k. That one sale alone would have blasted him/her past the quota and bumped up the commission percentage.

Yeah, I'm with you. I just wish it wasn't portrayed as such a partisan, negative thing. Which is frustrating because that's how he leads.

I wish he could have just said "we have an untapped well of jobs which sit between unskilled jobs and highly skilled tech jobs. Someone has to run all these new computers. If you go to a trade school, you can get a good job in less time and with no debt."

Heck, liberals and Democrats should be psyched for this message. Because: 1) people who graduate from trade schools join unions 2) green energy production needs these skills more than older oil companies do. Sun doesn't turn itself into electricity. 3) this sort of training is usually close to urban centers, which means more business for blue-leaning cities